


Second Chances

by Serpens Angelus (darkangel_27)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Child Loss, Healer!Harry, M/M, bottom!Snape, m-preg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-02
Updated: 2015-09-02
Packaged: 2018-04-18 16:58:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4713542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkangel_27/pseuds/Serpens%20Angelus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the Live Journal Snarry Glompfest. My prompt was:</p><p>Healer Potter works in the children's wing at St. Mungo's years after the war. Imagine his surprise when a young girl with black silky hair and jewel green eyes is admitted to the ward. Memories of a post-war revelry involving a lot of firewhisky and a bit of buggery with Snape surface once more. Will it be too late for him to know his daughter before she succumbs to her illness? There has to be some perk to having The Master of Death as one of your dads.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Possible child loss trigger, NC-17 applies to Chapter Four which can be skipped without any major disturbance to the story line. General story is PG.

** Chapter One **

Harry looked down at the chart in his hand with a smile. Martouf was finally being discharged today, Harry always had mixed feelings with cases like this. Martouf was a nine year old boy that had come into St Mungos suffering with Dragon Pox, which under normal circumstances wouldn't have been an issue, but his mother had been subjected to several curses while pregnant with him. Death Eaters had been wanting her husband to supply information during the second war and had tortured her in order to gain his compliance. When Martouf was born a month after the end of the war he had been suffering from the effects of the curses and as a result he would always be weak in body although he was strong in mind.

The poor boy was a recurring admittance and would be for the rest of his life, but it didn't dampen the boys spirit. He always was able to make Harry and many other of the pediatric medi-staff smile. It was nice to be sending him home again but Harry would miss him. This didn't stop him wishing for the boy to be magically better and for Martouf never to have to return to their care again.

He straightened his lilac robes and entered the ward. It had changed a lot in the five years since he had started working there. It had once been the same as the rest of St Mungos, bland, white and clinical. It was quite depressing for the poor children that had to stay there, often on their own as there had been no accommodation for parents at that time. The children's mortality rate had been higher and recovery time longer compared to what it was now and the decline reinforced the positive impact the changes Harry had suggested had made on the children's experience and well being. It was the only time Harry had used his celebrity status to get something he wanted but he reasoned it was for the benefit of others so it wasn't a selfish act.

The ward now was bright and cheerful. It could house up to twenty children in the main unit and a further five in the intensive care. The walls that had once been a bland dirty white were now covered in colourful pictures that moved around the walls, some enacting scenes of fairy tales, others capable of interacting with the children by following them around the ward on the wall. Above them on the ceiling were birds during the day, bright and colourful ranging from normal songbirds to tropical parrots and a night fireflies created moving constellation of stars. At the height of the war, the ward had been capable of holding forty beds but by the time Harry had begun working there they rarely had more than fifteen, and most of those just overnight admittance, so Harry had requested they lower the capacity by half to allow space for chairs to be transfigured into beds for worried parents. It had taken close to a year to get the men in charge to agree but they eventually did and they never looked back.

Harry had also requested the staff room that had once been a separate room in the ward to be utilised instead as a play and sensory room for the patients. He had to pay for the refurbishment but it was well worth the money to see the children's faces as they played in the room. They had tried to rename the ward in honour of the positive changes Harry had made but Harry had managed to talk them away from using his name instead settling on 'Zaphiel Ward' named after the Guardian Angel of Children. It even gained a moto 'Per Risus Sanamus', 'Through Laughter We Heal'.

Harry made his way over to the bed that Martouf had been staying in. The brown haired boy was laughing with his mother as she prepared his hospital bag for the trip home. A bright purple, five inch dragon that had been with him through his stay this time, was bouncing back and forth on the wall obviously happy it's ward was finally getting to go home. It seemed kind of poetic the dragon had latched onto him considering he came in with Dragon Pox, it never did well to try and guess why certain pictures latched onto certain children, it mostly gave Harry a headache because he was fairly certain the spell the painters had cast was incapable of giving the pictures such emotions or motives.

"Hey there, trouble. I hear Dr Robnor told you, you could go home. That can't possibly be true. Who else would try and trick the matrons into giving them extra pudding." Harry smiled, accepting the soft grasp from Martoufs mother hand on his own. It was a reassurance thing for her, she needed contact sometimes to prove to herself things were real. It was one of the long term side effects from her time in the hands of the Death Eaters.

"I don't do that. Honestly mum, I don't." Martouf told his mum looking worried, both Harry and the boys mum laughed.

"It's ok dear. Thank you again Healer Potter." Juliet said softly.

"How long have you been coming here? You know we have a first name rule here. Call me Harry, please." He chastised jokingly.

"Well thank you, Harry. You really help him not just to get better but in general. He idolises you." She told Harry, warming his heart. It was the same every time they were there but it was nice to hear regardless, more so than those that say it because he was the Man-Who-Killed-Voldemort. Parents like Juliet said it because of the work he did now, not what he had no control over in the past.

"It is always a pleasure seeing your son. We just wish we didn't need to see him so often. I know the Matrons will be glad for the break." Harry teased the boy, ruffling his hair. "Are you all set?"

Juliet looked around the space, asking Martouf had he got everything. Once they were sure they had left nothing this time, Harry began to escort them from the ward. "Here is the latest care information and potion regime. If you have any questions or need anything just phone the Doctor, if he's off playing golf give me a call. You know the number to the ward and no offence Martouf, but I don't want to see or hear from you or mother until at least next year you hear me." Harry smiled, bending down to fasten the boys coat after passing his mum the information pack.

That was another thing Harry had changed, before he qualified they were basically tossed out once they were better. No information, besides which potions to take and when. Now they get a list of apothecaries which stocked the potions, contact details of the people that had been on the case and a bit of information of how best to prevent whatever they came in with from happening again. Most of the time it was safety-in-the-home information but every now and again, like in this case, it was dietary information and nutritional information that should help boost the patients immune system. It had been such a success on their ward that other wards were starting to implement similar packs.

Once the pair had left, Harry went back into his ward and went to see his next patient. His day went in a predictable routine. After doing this for five years everything was routine and familiar and he loved it. Helping these children get from a place no child should be to going home happy and healthy with their families, was more rewarding than anything he could have accomplished becoming an auror. It hurt like hell when they lost a child but he would never change it.

This place was his home, more than Hogwarts ever was because here he was himself. Here he wasn't Harry Potter, The-Man-Who-Killed-Voldemort, instead he was Harry, just another member of a team that helped children to get back to being children. At the end of the day, Harry always went home completely exhausted, emotionally drained and wishing it was tomorrow so he could back to the place he loved.


	2. Chapter Two

** Chapter Two **

Harry turned up for his week of night shifts to find they had had a new admission during the day. The moment he stepped onto the ward Head Healer Sophia made a bee-line for him with a file.

"Hey Sophia. New case?" Harry asked, walking over the central island where they did paperwork while still being able to keep an eye on their patients. The gate would only open to those programmed to it and a charm could be used to obscure those inside the island from the rest of the ward, if sensitive cases were being discussed.

"Yeah, the father asked for you by name." She told him, handing the file over.

"You know how I feel about those kind of parents." Harry told her, passing the file back over without looking at it. More than once children had been brought in when they could have easily been cared for at home because the parents wanted to meet him. He always refused those cases and now they very rarely happened.

"This one you will want to take. The girls in intensive care. The father is away with business a lot and the mother is unfortunately not with us any longer. She's going to be quite on her own here." Sophia told him, she knew he had a soft spot for the children that would spend most of their time without an adult companion, for whatever reason. Rumours of his own childhood had made the circuits a few years ago thanks to Rita Skeeter, who swiftly found herself out of a job when certain illegal activities came to light, and Sophia believed this was the reason he honed in on those children. Not wanting them to feel alone when they were already suffering and Sophia knew he was brilliant with them. Those children tended to recover quicker and the mortality rate of children on his roll was the lowest of all the staff, but sometimes it was just time for the child.

Harry put his bag down under the desk he would be using for the night and turned back to her. "Let's hear it." He said.

"The child is called Mia. She is eight years old and has been suffering with what the father thought was Wizard Flu. He's a Potions Master, so had been treating her himself at home, he assured the admitting doctor he provides such potions to several apothecaries, and even supplies to us on occasion but this morning the poor dear had a fright when she begun to cough up blood. He was able to stop the bleeding in her lungs before bringing her straight to us." Sophia told him as he accepted the file, reading through the test result, that they had gotten back so far.

"It says here she's a category four. Where did her father have to go?" Harry asked angrily. Category Four was one of the Intensive Care Categories. The poor girl was under constant care and expected to get worse considering most of her results had come back negative and they were only able to treat symptoms for the time being.

"No idea, he said he's likely to be back tomorrow night. From what the admitting Doctor said, the poor man was distraught. I wouldn't be surprised if he was finding it difficult to cope. Wife gone, he had been doing what he thought was best for his daughter, only to find out he may be causing her death by not bringing her in sooner. It's too much for some people, you know that." Sophia told her friend softly.

"I suppose." Harry conceded. He looked at the file again. "Mia Prince. I don't recognise the surname."

"She's adorable, got the most beautiful eyes. By the time she got brought up she was exhausted, last time I checked in on her she was asleep. I was going to check on her again before I left." Sophia told the man, who was grabbing for his other patient files.

"Let me know if she's awake. If not, I'll check on my other patients before doing my initial checks on her. I don't fancy waking her if she is as ill as she seems." Harry told Sophia.

"Sure, I'll go check on her before I do my final checks, then home time. Absolutely knackered." Sophia laughed, Harry laughed along with her. It was an hour before Harry finally managed to peer in on his new patient. He had been held up by two of his patients bullying him into telling them bedtime stories and the third hadn't wanted to leave the playroom for bed.

He walked up to the Intensive Care Unit, it was decorated in much the same way the main ward was but had various charms and equipment scattered about that the main ward didn't have, making it seem cluttered. There were only five beds in this part of the ward all empty except forone. There was also a desk and chair for staff needing to stay with their patients. Harry took Mia's file over to the desk before walking over to the bed. He took the monitoring parchment from where it was secured at the foot of the bed and started to look it over as he moved up the bed to see his patient.

The poor girls vitals were all over the show, her breathing rate was up, her heart rate was down and her blood pressure was doing some weird conga. If she didn't improve by tomorrow, Harry would have to declare her Category Five. Category Five was basically reserved for patients they didn't expect to make it. They continued to try but a lot of the care was palliative and they spent a lot of time preparing the families for the worse. Harry hated declaring a Category Five, it felt to him as though they were giving up but it was part of his job, one of the worse parts.

He looked up from the parchment and took in the child before him. She was really pale, made to look more so by her long, wavy black hair. She did look like such a cutie, her face still shaped with some baby fat giving her big cheeks which helped to even out her distinctive nose. It was a bit long for her face, slightly hooked at the end but she would grow into it. Harry brushed a stray hair away from her eyes gently. She stirred opening her eyes for no more than a second, but it was enough for Harry to be amazed by the colour. They were jade green much like his own, he didn't know anyone else with eyes like those besides himself and his mother. Maybe the child's mother was related to the Evans somewhere down the line. Maybe her father was, Harry wouldn't know until he got to meet the man. With any luck she'll still be hanging on by then.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Harry was brought back to the Intensive Care Unit by the alarms set up around Mia, she was crashing. He had left the Unit to do his 3am rounds on his other patients. He ran back to the room, to find Healer Harrison already working on the young girl.

"What do we have?" Harry asked, authoritatively as he entered the room. He was the Healer in Charge tonight.

"Her BP and heart rate have dropped. She had flat lined but I managed to jump start her. I'm currently trying to get her blood pressure to increase so I can put her in stasis until morning." Harrison told Harry. Harry unlocked the medicine cabinet and pulled out a couple of vials. Going to the opposite side of the bed, he began to pour the potions into the child's mouth, charming her to swallow them before she drowned on them instead.

It took a couple of minutes but the combination of Harrison's charms and Harrys potions worked and she was stable enough to put into a stasis sleep for the time being. The rest of the night went swiftly. Harry caught up on paperwork he neglected during his week of days and then dozed for a bit before the day staff showed up at 8am. Harry was glad to collapse in his bed when he finally got home, he just hoped when he returned he wouldn't have discovered he'd lost a patient.


	3. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

The rest of Harrys week of nights went uneventful, in the grand scheme of things. Timothy was almost ready for discharge, Samantha had finished her second lot of medicine and was due more tests next week, Philip had recovered from the whole swallowing pixie eggs thing and had been discharged and Mia was still under stasis. No better but no worse than the first night. Her father had shown up during the day after her second night in their care. He had come diligently every day since, but was unable to stay the nights. Sophia had told Harry that the man, who liked to be addressed as Mr Prince was quite a stern man to staff, demanding information and answers but not really wanting to give any of his own. He didn't really engage with the staff like most parents instead enjoying his time alone reading to his daughter. 

It wasn't until nine days after Mia was admitted that Harry finally met the man and bloody hell was he surprised.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Mr Prince, as he was known as now, walked into Mungos with his usually mask of indifference. He had been told yesterday his daughters Healer was back on days this week and would be in today. Mr Prince was therefore quite nervous about going to see his daughter today. He didn't want her Healer to find out the truth, it had the potential to destroy his whole world but his world was already falling apart. Mia, his gift, was dying and there was nothing any of them could do. They didn't even know what was wrong with her. 

He walked through the now familiar halls towards Zaphiel Unit, his mask firmly in place. He knew his daughter's healer would recognise him instantly and he also knew his daughter's healer was the best, that was why he had requested him. If he had had any other option he would have gone to a whole different country but waking up to the sounds of his daughter screaming in pain and coughing up her own blood had forced him to see a man he had not seen in years for good reason. 

He had made a quick decision and he would not regret it. Not if it saved his daughter. Mia was his life, had been since the day she was born. He had no one else in this world besides her and he would kill anyone, quickly and without remorse, to ensure her happiness. After everything that had come to pass, he had truly believed he would never find happiness again but the moment he held her he knew that she had been sent to him. That was why he had named her Mia Pandora Prince. She was his new start, she was his gift from God, she was his one true hope of happiness. 

Now she was here, and he was helpless to save her. After bringing her in, and hearing the doctors and healers discuss her case he couldn't stay. He knew it was cowardice, but he had needed time to get over his own guilt. What ifs had flooded his mind and for two days he was in a pit of despair but then he was reminded of what she had brought into his life and he couldn't stay away. He left every night to ensure he was rested for the next day and if he was honest to avoid her healer but that had to end. She needed him, she had given him his life back and he had to ensure she would live hers to the fullest no matter what it took. 

He finally reached the ward, he took a deep breath and made sure his mask was firmly in place. It wouldn't do to have them see him as weak. As he entered the familiar ward he saw the faces of the children and their parents, trying to make light out of their situation. He couldn't do that, his daughter wasn't even awake. He made his way straight to the Intensive Care Unit, he wasn't surprised to find Potter sat at the desk in the room. He had been told by other Healers on the unit that Harry was one of the most committed Healers they knew. He had made and forced most of the changes that had improved the Pediatric Care over the last few years. His charges loved him and he was committed to every single case on his books which was why he only took a few at a time. 

Mr Prince had known at the time he had made the right decision requesting Healer Potter as his daughter's Healer, but seeing him sat there engrossed in his case files just reinforced that thought. If only the man had paid his school work this much attention. 

He opened the door, looking at his daughter, pale and lifeless in her bed, a faint glow around her indicating the stasis charm was still in place, the small movement of her chest the only indication she was still alive. Mr Prince went straight to her bedside, taking a seat next to her, lifting a book out of his cloak. Tales of Beedle the Bard, it was Mia's favourite. 

"Severus, what are you doing here? Do you know her father?" Harry asked, after he looked up from his paperwork to see who had come into the room.

"I am her father, Potter." He replied not looking up from the book, as he tried to find the page he was last on. Harry looked at his ex-professor stunned beyond words for a moment. "Problem Potter?" Severus pushed.

"No, well beside the fact I'm back to Potter. I just wasn't expecting. . . I suppose I see it now though. I'm sorry to hear about her mother?" Harry said, just wishing to keep Severus talking while his brain caught up.

"What about her mother?" Severus put down the book on his lap for a moment, he had missed watching Harry flap when he wasn't sure what was going on.

"About her death, I bet it's hard raising Mia by yourself. When did she pass?"

"What makes you think she's dead?" Severus asked, enjoying the look of confusion that passed over Harry's face. 

"It was reported that she only had her father. I think my boss assumed her mother had passed. It was the information I was given anyway."

"Potter you're rambling." Severus told him.

"I am aware of that." Harry laughed. 

"Her mother isn't dead, she just isn't involved in Mia's life." Severus told him, turning back to the book.

"That's worse, somehow. How could a mother not want to have anything to do with her child?"

"I've never really worried about it. She doesn't know the woman, she doesn't miss her."

"I doubt that, a child always misses their parents even if they don't remember them." Harry said sadly, standing to go over to Mia's bed. It was time to check her vitals he told himself.

"You speak as though you know." Severus told him.

"You know I do." Harry replied, picking up the monitoring parchment. He checked over it for a small while before nodding to himself. "She's still stable. I'm going to go check on my other patients. Call if you need anything." He told the older man, hearing his old professor take up reading to the child, he left the room a small sad smile on his face.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Harry sat at his best friends dining table. They made the effort to meet once a week for dinner as long as Harry wasn't on nights, this week it was Ron and Hermione's turn. They were eating a gorgeous Chicken Chasseur that Hermione had cooked, while Ron told them a story of an incident at work where one of his colleagues had thought it would be a great idea to charm their Department Heads Office to rain jelly after his expenses for a case where refused.

"It took the Magical Maintenance guys all day to get it to stop. Place was still covered when I left." Ron laughed. 

"I still think it's mean." Hermione said sternly.

"Nah, it'll be cleared by tomorrow. Roger had put up charms to protect his paperwork." Ron told her. "Didn't save the God awful picture of Philips mother, you could hear her screech from the pit." Ron laughed. Harry laughed along with him, earning a glare from Hermione.

"Harry, how are things at work? Not seen you in a fortnight, is that poor little Martouf still in?" Hermione asked, trying to change the subject.

"No, he got discharged two days after our dinner date. Got a new case now." Harry told her, before taking a bite of the chicken, he almost moaned it was that good.

"I don't know how you do it mate. I couldn't." Ron told him around a mouthful.

"And that's why you don't." Harry laughed as Hermione nudged her husband in the ribs for his table manners. They had improved but some days . . . 

"So, what's the new case?" Hermione asked, pouring herself a glass of wine.

"Eight year old girl. Brought in after suffering what her father thought was Wizarding Flu but had developed into her coughing up blood. The father had been medicating at home for around a week but she's gone downhill quick now she is in our care. She's in Intensive Care under a stasis charm, so close to a Category Five that it's already half written in her file." Harry told them sadly, the meal forgotten for a moment

"Oh god. Do you not have any idea's?" Hermione asked, Harry could see her going into research mode. It happened every time he had a difficult case and usually some good ideas would come out of it, which in general would lead them to finding a cure.

"All the usual tests have come back negative. She's not hexed, cursed or poisoned by any of the usual things. All the viral and bacterial tests have also come back negative. We are looking into the first symptoms and have a list of medicines the father brewed to see if we can find anything there to explain why she suddenly went down hill even though she had been fairly stable for a week." Harry informed her.

"Maybe there was an ingredient or combination of ingredients that was halting the process." Hermione mused.

"That's what we are thinking, if we can find the ingredients we might have a better idea of what caused this. It's taking time though, you know what it's like at Mungos, labs take forever to get back with even the basics, let alone anything as complex as this." Harry told his friends.

"What was the father thinking medicating at home for Wizards Flu?" Ron asked, stabbing a potato.

"He's on his own, a Potions Master and a fairly competent home-healer." Harry told them.

"Sounds like you know him." Hermione stated looking at Harry quizzically.

"We all do its Snape." Harry told them, he quickly darted back when Hermione started choking and Ron sprayed the table with food. Harry laughed.

"That was a cruel joke mate." Ron told him, wiping his mouth on his sleeve and patting Hermione on the back.

"Not a joke, the daughter is Mia Pandora Prince. Remember in sixth year when I had the Half-Blood Prince's potions book. Snape informed me it was his. I can't remember if I ever told you that. His mothers maiden name is Prince, apparently after the War he started to go by her name. That's why we haven't heard anything about him in all these years." Harry started to eat again.

"What happened to her mother?" Hermione asked.

"No idea, Snape . . . Sorry Mr Prince said that she's still alive. Just never wanted to have anything to do with the child. I don't understand that. If you saw her . . . She's the cutest thing." Harry told them.

"That's awful. . . I wonder how they met?"

"Probably a prostitute." Ron murmured over his dinner, earning himself a slap over the head. Harry could understand his friends disbelief that anyone would go near the greasy dungeon bat but Harry had, had a glimpse of the true Severus and it wasn't that bad.

"If the girls eight, do you think her mother was one of the baby boomers?" Hermione asked.

"Baby boomer?" Ron asked in return.

"Yeah, a woman that got pregnant during the celebrations at the end of the war. If Mia was a result of a drunken one night stand I can kinda understand why the mother doesn't want her. Though I personally couldn't do it." Hermione added shaking her head. 

"I don't know, her date of birth is the 25th January 1999." Harry told her, watching as his friend did the math. He hadn't seen Snape with anyone else during that time.

"Yeah sounds about right. Loads of babies were born at the end of January and the beginning of February that year. There were loads from that party we attended, you know the one, held as a street party in Diagon Alley." Hermione told them taking a sip of her wine.

"Isn't that the one that they suspected someone spiked the punch? That's the night Dean got knocked up." Ron asked.

"I didn't hear about anyone spiking the punch. What was it spiked with?" Harry had gone on his world trip a few weeks after the street party and hadn't returned for a full year, so he wasn't surprised he hadn't heard anything.

"I only found out because they suspected Fred." Ron told him. "They thought someone had put a very strong fertility potion in the punch, but never had enough proof to get anyone on it."

"And Dean wound up getting a kid from it?" Harry asked, he hadn't spoken to Dean in years. He hadn't even known he had a kid. 

"Yeah, Seamus and him were a lot closer than we all suspected. Seamus managed to get him up the duff that night. You remember the entire fiasco about it, Hermione? First male pregnancy in a Century, that's why they suspected a fertility potion. A man can't get pregnant without some help."

"I didn't know a man could get pregnant at all." Harry told them, his heart hammering in his chest. He would know wouldn't he.


	4. Chapter Four

** Chapter Four **

Harry hadn't stayed much longer after dinner. Their talk of the celebrations and the aftermath had started something in his mind and after that he wasn't the best of company. He remembered the party they had been talking about. Held about a week after the defeat of Voldermort by the shop owners that were slowly but surely making their way back onto Diagon Alley. It had been the only party Harry had attended that didn't have some official reason for him to be there. 

-x-x-x-x-x-

Harry apparated into chaos, people were shouting and laughing, streamers and fireworks were randomly going off and flying down the street. Kids and adults alike were running about playing games, enjoying the freedom that came with the destruction of a mad man. It was nothing like the few parties he had gone to before. They had all been stiff and formal, people congratulating him on becoming a murderer and freeing them of the job at the same time. It had been tiring to attend those parties, but this one had a smile blooming on Harrys face. 

People stepped around him, so wrapped up in their own euphoria that they didn't even recognise him, here he was just another one of the people. He had only been at the party an hour, chatting to anyone and everyone that came to him when he spotted Snape stood a little way off from everyone. He looked quite out of place observing the celebrations, excusing himself from a conversation between Mr Weasley and one of the shop owners that was planning on catering more towards the muggle-borns, he made his way over to his ex-Potions Master.

"Mr Potter." Snape greeted as Harry drew near.

"Professor Snape." Harry nodded his head in a return greeting. "I hadn't expected to see you here. I didn't even know you had been discharged." 

Snape, Harry noticed, looked decidedly uncomfortable. His back was ramrod straight and to a wall, his eyes constantly scanning the faces of the crowd and a very slight, almost indiscernible, flinch past through his body every time a firework went off. Harry knew the signs, had demonstrated them often enough in the past year. "Come on, let's go get a drink."

"I don't think so Mr Potter." Snape replied, eyes flickering to Harry's for a moment before going back to scan the crowd. 

"Why are you here then?" Harry shouted over a child screaming as they ran past. He noticed the wince in Snape's face. 

"If I have one drink, will you leave me alone?" Snape asked tiredly.

"I can't promise anything, but I'll try." Harry smiled, leading the man over to one of the many refreshment tables set up along Diagon Alley. He poured them both a glass of punch and noticed that Snape waited a few minutes after Harry had taken a sip before trying his own drink.

Harry smiled, hiding it behind the cup as he took another drink. After viewing the dying man's memories, Harry felt as close to this man as he did Ron and Hermione. They didn't understand his new fascination with the older man but it was there none the less.

"Why did you come to the party, Professor? You don't really seem to want to be here." Harry asked. 

"I could say the same about you. You smile and act like you are glad to be amongst them but I saw you when you thought no one was looking." Snape told the young man, he had been observing the Saviour since his arrival on the street. 

Harry avoided his eye from a moment, Snape could almost see him gathering his Gryffindor courage. "Do you want to come back to mine? I don't want to drink on my own" Harry asked him finally. 

"Why?" 

"Thought you would appreciate it more than any of my friends. They are happy to be here, I don't think you and I fit in here anymore." Harry told him, not sure if he was talking about the party or something more.

Snape finished his drink before answering. "Grimmauld Place?" He asked, Harry nodded slightly disbelieving his Potions Master was agreeing as Snape apparated out. The man left behind shook his head, downed his drink and sent a Patronus to Hermione to let her know he had gone home. 

When he arrived, he found the Potions Master sat in the kitchen, waiting. "Just let Hermione know I'd left. They get worried especially with Death Eaters still being out and after my blood." Harry informed the man sat at his table. He made his way over to the cupboard to get down two tumblers. "Is Firewhiskey ok? Or would you prefer something else? The Blacks had quite an extensive supply of drinks." 

"Firewhiskey will be fine." Snape agreed. Harry poured some into their glasses, placing Snape's glass in front of the man before putting the bottle on the table and taking a seat himself.

"To the end of Voldemort" Harry raised his glass in toast. Snape nodded, raised his glass in response before both downed their drink, Harry gasped as it burned on its way down. "Another?" Harry asked pouring himself another drink before pouring Snape another.

Snape raised his glass this time. "To surviving." Harry raised his glass in response this time before downing the burning liquid. A couple more toasts and drinks had Harry looking at his Potions Master in a different light. 

The man had finally begun to relax as the drinks were poured, they spoke of the war, of the past, of the people they had lost. Harry learned a bit more of Snape's relationship with his mother and what the woman was like as a person. The minutes gave way to hours until the clock chimed eleven, at some point they had made their way into the dingy lounge with the bottle of Firewhiskey, both men were slightly more than a little inebriated but it was ok. They both felt safe in the others company. They shared more commonality with each other than they ever could with any other person. After all who could say they died at the hand of Voldemort and we're still walking to talk about it.

"I had best be off home. No doubt I will be requiring a strong hangover cure in the morning." Severus said as he stood, he swayed on his feet causing Harry to giggle at his expense. "I hope you are not laughing at me."

"Never." Harry smiled, also standing. He almost lost his balance completely as his head spun, luckily a strong pair of arms embraced him, helping to keep him on his feet. The smile fell from Harry's face as he melted into the embrace. The solid chest in front of him, the strong arms around him, the methodical hands behind him, stroking small circles on his back almost of their own accord, the smell of Firewhiskey gently caressing his face on a soft, warm breeze, everything about the man holding him assaulted his senses, sobering him.

"I had best be off." Severus repeated, his voice soft sending shivers of arousal down Harry's spine before settling in his growing member.

Harry ignored him, instead he ran a hand down the man's chest feeling the strong muscles there twitch beneath his fingers. When had Severus lost his robe? "I have done a lot in my short life." Harry spoke, almost in a whisper. "I have lost my parents, grown in questionable conditions, found and lost friends, learned to fly and fight and survive, I have been killed and have killed but the one thing I have never done, the one thing I have never really wanted to do until now was make love." Harry felt Severus gasp beneath him, as his fingers continued to explore the chest before him. He was still quite short, his head only just coming up to Severus nose.

"No." Severus answered the unspoken question. 

"Is it because you don't want to?" Harry asked, his voice still low. The Gryffindor in him, pressed his hardness into Severus thigh and felt an answering hardness at the base of his stomach. Harry didn't wait for an answer, he stood on his tiptoes and kissed the man who had tormented him for so many years but he felt closer to than any other person on the planet.

He was surprised to feel Severus pull him closer and kiss him back with a hunger that echoed Harry's own. Tongues tangled and fought for dominance, breath was stolen and given equally as hands roamed unexplored territories. Someone moaned, but who neither man knew nor cared, as lust and heat and arousal began to dominate their minds. Severus pushed Harry back allowing the man to fall onto the settee they had just vacated before straddling the younger man, his mouth finding and devouring Harry's again. 

Someone cast a spell to rid them of their clothes, causing both to groan as they came skin to skin for the first time. Cock rubbed against cock as Harry's hip pushed upwards to meet Severus as the older man rocked in his lap. 

"Oh god." Harry groaned, his cock slipping in between Severus cheeks, the muscles squeezing Harry's member. Severus growled as the head of Harry's prick teased his opening, he bent down to pick his wand up from where it had been discarded near them and cast the spells to lubricate and stretch his quivering hole.

"Harry, stop moving." He told the younger man, the shock of Severus using his name had Harry stilling his thrusts before Severus had issued the command. Severus took hold of the younger man's cock, positioning it near his prepared and aching hole before sinking down slowly. Harry held himself tense to prevent himself from thrusting upwards as his dick was surrounded by hot, quivering velvet walls. 

Severus felt the solid length fill and stretch him as he lowered himself down onto it. His internal muscles shivered and twitched as he tried to get re accustomed to bottoming. It had been years since he had been filled but anything other than his fingers. He had missed it. Once Harry was fully seated inside of Severus, the older man lifted up groaning at the emptiness that was left in the wake before dropping back down onto the waiting cock. 

"Oh god," Harry groaned, his head falling back onto the back of the settee as his cock was squeezed and pulled and engulfed. He knew he wouldn't have lasted this long if it hadn't been for the Firewhiskey. "Fuck" 

Severus groaned in agreement, pulling himself up again, feeling his muscles loosen to the invasion. His movements grew quicker, harder and soon there were no more words, no sounds other than the slap of skin on skin, the groans of men finding completion together. Time became meaningless, movement, friction and sensations became the be all and end all. It seemed to take eternity and yet it seemed to end too soon as Harry came inside a tunnel that squeezed and pulled his orgasm from him so insistently that his eyes rolled into the back of his head as he arched up and pumped himself into the needy body above him.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Harry woke to hear someone moving around him, he didn't remember much of the night after around their fifth shot of Firewhiskey but the ache and jelly feeling in his lower body told him that the flashes of him having sex were not dreams. He opened his eyes to see the ceiling of the lounge. "Severus?" He asked as the sound of movement stopped, his voice rough and thick. Harry's head began to bound.

"I should not have stayed." Severus said somewhere near the door. Harry turned to look at him, noticing he was on the floor, a throw covering his naked body. "We shouldn't have done that." Severus was fully clothed, looking every bit the imposing Potions Master that had stood at the front of the classroom that very first potions class. 

"Why?" Harry asked, standing and swaying a little as he wrapped the throw around his waist, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

"You know why." Was all the answer Harry was getting to get.

"So what now?" But Harry sensed he knew the answer before he even asked the question.

"Nothing. We were drunk. It was a mistake. It was fun but it can't and won't happen again." Snape told his ex-student before leaving the man. Harry heard the front door open and close, his mind still reeling. A fortnight later he left the UK needing to be away from the circus that his life had become.


	5. Chapter Five

** Chapter Five **

Harry hadn't slept much the night before, his mind providing questions and theories that kept his thoughts turning well into the early morning. He stepped into the brightly coloured ward, a smile on his face but it didn't reach his eyes. He needed to speak to Severus, he couldn't be left wondering any more.

"Morning Harry." Sophia greeted as he walked up to the central desk. She noticed his tired look straight away "You ok?" 

"Yeah, didn't sleep much. Any major changes?" He asked as he set his things down and began picking up his patients files. 

"Not really, the lab dropped off the newest set of tests. I think Mia's are in there but I haven't had chance to scan through them yet. Samantha seems much improved today and Timothy's discharge paperwork just needs your signature. His pack is in his file. Oh and a memo came, we all need our latest Brownie rash jabs." Sophia told him as he flicked through his files. 

He looked over to the 'in' shelf for the test results and found Mia's. "Thanks." He told Sophia before making his way to the Intensive Care Unit. He would check on Mia first before Severus turned up. He entered the room and found her still in the same condition his spell had kept her in for so many days. Thoughts invaded his mind, what was killing her? What was she like? Was she a happy playful child? A bookworm like her father? Mischievous like him? Because now he looked at her, really looked at her their was no denying it. She was a Potter, even without the eyes Harry could see some of his childhood features in her. The shape of her face, the way her hair waved, he imagined if it had been short it would have resembled his own, even the shape of her hands and fingers matched his own now he looked. 

He took a deep breath to stop the emotions that threatened to overwhelm him and instead took a seat at the desk. He looked over the results, the latest test had been one to recover any past dark spells that may have been cast. He looked at the results and cursed under his breath. Standing abruptly he marched back out into the main ward. "Can you get me Healer Simmons on the floo?" He asked one of the Matrons as he went to the centre desk, retrieving the book on dark curses they had there. He flicked through it until he got the right page.

The Vastentas Curse, also known as the Wasting Curse, is a particular aggressive curse. The curse itself involves a ritual requiring some specimen from the intended victim. This can be hair, spit, sexual fluids or blood. Anything from the body of the victim. The curse causes the body to begin attacking itself, starting slowly the body is no longer able to accept nutrients. This lack of nutrients causes the immune system to start to fail. Once the body's immune system begins to fail the curse turns what is left on the body. At this point, the curse is irreversible. Depending on the victim and the strength of the caster the curse can take anywhere between one lunar month to half a year. Only the caster can remove the curse. 

"Harry, I have Healer Simmons on the floo." A matron told him as he closed the book. His whole being wanted to cry but his healer training kept the tears at bay. He made his way over to the floo in the corner.

"Ah Healer Potter, one of your Matrons said you wish to speak to me." The ageing man said through the fire place.

"I wish for a consult. I have my patients information with me is it alright if I step through." Harry answered.

"Of course. Come on through." Healer Simmons nodded before his head vanished. Harry stepped through a moment later, praying the book was wrong.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Severus stepped into the Ward, it was too cheerful. His daughter was lay in a bed dying and yet the place was filled with laughter, children's laughter from the playroom attached. He ignored the other children and parents, healers and matrons alike. His one and only mission was to each the room his daughter was held in.

He closed the door, closing out the laughter and talking from the main ward. He couldn't bare to hear it today. He went to the bedside and took a seat, grasping at his Mia's cold lifeless hand. He moved his hand to her wrist, resting his fingers over her pulse. His nightmares had been vivid last night, he needed the reassurances she was still with him. At least for the moment. 

His sleep had been filled of her laughter, her smiling happy face. She had been in the garden, playing amongst the herbs he grew for his potions. He was chasing her, happy and carefree once more. The sun that had been blazing high above them suddenly fell dark, the birds that had been singing fell silent, the smell of the herbs that had filled his nose rotted and his daughter. His gorgeous, intelligent, loving daughter turned to face him. Blood pouring from her eyes and ears, screams streamed from her open mouth torturing his ears as her skin, her flawless, soft skin decayed and rotted from her body. "Daddy, help me." She screamed but he couldn't move, he couldn't do anything as he watched her writhe in pain as she rotted. A laugh had filled the air as his daughters screams reached their peak, her organs falling from her as her muscles liquified and fell from her bone. "You should have never betrayed him." The very air seemed to say to him. An eternity seemed to pass before the silence fell upon him. His eyes never leaving the sight of his daughter dying before him.

He looked down on his daughter now and found the nightmare had been true, she was wasting away. She was dying before him and there was nothing he could do about it. He had to trust the one man he couldn't even tell the truth to. He had wanted to. After leaving Grimmauld Place that morning, he had wanted to return but he had been scared. Severus had learned quickly that no one would love him so why try. Why allow himself the illusion just to have it ripped from him by the other person? 

When he had found out he was pregnant, he had wanted to tell Harry. He knew the boy wanted a family, he knew the boy would have accepted the child, probably a lot easier than he had but Harry had gone. None of his friends knew where, just that he was traveling and was only contacting them occasionally to let them know he was still alive. By the time Harry had returned, Severus had been settled in his new home, happy with his daughter and he had never looked back. Not until now. 

He took out the book he had been reading to his daughter. It was her favourite. The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Severus had always found it amusing that his daughter loved The Tale of the Three Brothers considering her father was the one true keeper of all the Deathly Hallows. He settled down to reading it aloud for her. 

It could have been minutes, it could have been hours but his reading was finally interrupted by Harry. Severus put the book down as he turned to look at Harry. He wish he hadn't. Harry looked defeated.

"I know what's wrong with our daughter." Harry told the Potions Master, once he had shut the door. Severus stood at his words.

"Our? You know?" He asked, looking between the girl on the bed and the man he had asked to heal her.

"I suspected. You just confirmed it. I can't . . . I can't deal with that right now. She's dying, Severus. There is nothing we can do." Harry told the parent of his patient, because if he thought of them any differently he would die inside.

"How? Why?" Severus asked, collapsing back into the chair. His very breath stolen from him by Harry's words.

"She was cursed. The Vastentas Curse. Someone close to you or to her had to have placed it on her."

"To get back at me." Severus whispered. "No one knows who we are." 

"Someone does."

"There has to be something. Some way." Severus tried, looking back at his daughter watching her chest rise and fall. Each breath possibly being her last.

"The curse can only be stopped by the one who cast it, but only up to a certain point. Mia's past that point. The curse has done too much damage, progressed too far. Even if her murderer was found and convinced to lift the curse it won't help now." Harry told him, he wouldn't allow himself to feel it, he couldn't it would kill him. 

"So what? We wait for her to die?" Severus snarled angrily.

"Take her home. Surround her with the things she loves and be with her. Once the stasis charm is off she . . ."

"No! I won't accept this. I can't accept this. You have saved so many, helped so many. Save her, help her. Please" Severus begged, falling to his knees beside Mia's bed.

"I can't." Harry told him, tears starting to flow unwanted down his cheek. No matter how much he tried to remain professional, see them as his patient and her parent it wasn't the truth. He was losing a daughter he never knew he had, destroying a person he had tried for a year to forget he wanted.

"You are the Master of Death, Harry. Save her. Save your own flesh and blood." Severus pleaded. He was a proud man, a strong man but at that moment, in that second he was neither he was a desperate father pleading with the grim reaper to leave his daughter with him. "I'll do anything, Harry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything I did when you was at school, for keeping her from you but please. Please. I beg of you don't let her be taken."

"Don't do that. Don't put this on me." Harry's voice low and dangerous. "Don't you dare put this on me. If she had been brought in sooner, maybe we could have helped. But there is nothing we can do."

"I know it's my fault. Merlin, do I know it but I'm not asking you as a healer. I'm asking you as the Master of the Hallows. Save her." Severus told him, standing and turning to the man he had rejected all those years ago. Harry looked at the man, a desperate father wishing for a miracle.

"I don't have any mystical powers. I can't stop death, Severus." 

"You don't even know what you're capable of. Why do you think she has survived this long? Why do you think you have the highest and quickest recovery rate? Think of every death that has happened to your patients was it not the best for them? You have had power over your patient's life and death ever since you controlled all the Hallows. All I am asking is for you not to give up on her. I will help you to find a way to bring her back to us, please don't give up on her. If she dies, I will follow her I can't live without her. Give me a chance to bring her back to me. To us." Severus grabbed Harry by the shoulders needing the man to believe him.

Harry looked from the man to the child. He wanted to give them a chance but he couldn't see how he could keep her alive. Sure his stasis charm was working so far . . .

"The charms failed" Harry shouted over the alarm that let him know his patients heart had stopped. "We're losing her."


	6. Chapter Six

** Chapter Six **

Severus had never been a religious man, very few of their world were but he prayed. My god did he pray. He prayed to God, Merlin, Buddha, and Krishna even to the man currently in the room with his daughter and other medi-staff trying to bring her back from the reaper. 

He watched through the window, as the man he thought he loved did what he did best. He couldn't hear him but he saw him barking orders at the others, directing them into doing what they could do to bring her back to him. It was a wonder to watch but Severus couldn't be amazed at the synchronicity of it all he was terrified.

He watched as the cast spell after spell over his daughter, magicked potions into her lifeless body, an array of colour lit the room, the staff, his daughter and the equipment. It could almost be beautiful if his daughter wasn't fading away in front of him. He couldn't breathe, he wouldn't take a breath until she did, his body wouldn't accept the air around him. His chest was tightening, his heart being ripped from his chest with every excruciatingly long second that passed without any change. 

He watched as the team, one by one stopped working. Until it was only Harry, it wasn't enough. It was never going to be enough. He had never deserved to have his daughter, he had never deserved the happiness his daughter had brought into his life the moment she took her first breath. 

He watched as Harry shouted at the other staff but they refused to work. One even went so far as to take Harrys wand from him. Severus broke then, he ran into the room.

"You can't give up." He shouted at the staff but they all just looked at him sadly. All, that is, but Harry who was glaring at the medi-witch that had confiscated his wand.

"There is nothing more we can do. She has gone and to keep on trying is not fair on her." One of them said, Severus all but snarled, tears streaming down his face. He went to his daughter then. Pulling her close to him, resting her lifeless face against his chest.

"Come back to me, angel. Please, please don't leave me. I can't live without you, my gift. I can't . . . " he sobbed in earnest, smelling her hair, tears dampening the dark, curvy locks. He rocked her as he cried and begged, unaware of everyone leaving until Harry came over and rested a hand on his shoulder.

Severus looked up then, he saw tear tracks running down his ex-students face. He saw red then. He lay Mia down on the bed softly, she could have just been sleeping if it hadn't been for the lack of movement at her chest. He turned on the father of his daughter.

"You could have done something." Severus said in a low dangerous tone, as if afraid his ensuing rage would wake his eternally sleeping daughter. He lunched for Harry grabbing him by his collar and snarling in his face. "You could have saved her."

"I tried, Severus. I'm not the Master of Death. I can't save them if it's their time." Harry said tiredly, he was emotionally, physically and magically drained.

"Bull shit. You could have brought her back to me, to us." Severus shook him. "Why didn't you? What did I do that was so bad you took my daughter from me? You killed me, Harry Potter. I'm dead without her." He bellowed, before hitting the man. Harry just looked at him in shock, besides the Pensieve incident he had never seen Severus lose his temper and never with physical violence. Severus looked just as shocked and without so much as a warning he ran from the room.

Harry just watch him leave again. 

-x-x-x-x-x-

Severus walked the corridors. He couldn't believe he had resorted to his own fathers methods of releasing his anger. He had always prided himself on his use of cutting words and fierce tones to convey his rage, it was beyond comprehension that he had resorted to his hands in a time he should be spending with his daughter before her body would be taken from him forever.

He felt the rage leave his body, leaving him weary and tired as he walked. He didn't know how long he walked for, he took in nothing of his surroundings, but he eventually found himself back at the doors of Zaphiel Ward. He pushed them open and walked through the ward. It seemed darker, sadder and even the children had stopped their joyous laughter. 

He reached his daughter's death chamber and stepped inside. He was surprised to see Harry still there, sat on his daughters bed crying quietly. The young man seemed to sense the Potion Masters presence.

"I wish I could have brought her back for you. I wish I could have known her." Harry said tears thickening his voice. He never looked up from the girl with the dark, wavy hair. "You deserve to be happy Severus, you more than most. I watch parents come in with children time and again, and on rare occasions there are parents I wish I could take their children off them. I know they are the reason their child is lay in a bed crying in pain, but their child lives and they take them home just to return them to our care when their rage overtakes them again." Harry was quiet.

"I wish I could have given her back to you." His tears were free falling now, onto the hand he held as his other hand stroked through the soft locks. "I have saved everyone, died myself to accomplish it. I would die again if I thought it would get her to open her eyes, if I thought for a second I could see her smile just once. All I ever wanted in this world was a family, was you, and just as I discover I could have those things it's ripped from me, from us." He was becoming angry the longer he spoke. 

"We must have been evil in our past lives. To deserve the lives we have had we must have been pure evil and this is our punishment." Harry practically growled.

Severus could feel his power rising with his anger, it tingled his skin, sent adrenaline coursing through his veins. "We did nothing to deserve this." Severus answered sadly.

"Then why? Why bring her into my life to snatch her away? Why give you eight years to finally form an attachment with someone again after my mother just to lose her as well? Why make us do all the things we have done and suffer all we have suffered, just to take the last bit of sunshine from our lives?" Harry was furious now, the fates had always been bastards to him but now they had taken an innocent life, they had pushed him too far. After everything, he had done for the Wizarding World, that they had both done they couldn't even keep the reward they more than deserved. 

He felt his powers rising, felt his anger and his love fuel its fire. It had been along time since he had felt his power breach his internal dams but now it decimated them. He felt winds surround the three of them. Heard the glass blow out the frames and the resulting screams from staff and patients from the ward. He could smell the magic sizzling through the air burning the very atoms that created everything.

"Harry!" Severus shouted, as the wind formed a barrier around his daughter and the man who should have shared their life. "Harry stop!" Then he screamed as he watched his daughter burst into flames on the bed. The only thing containing the heat was the barrier formed by the dense air around her. Harrys hair whipped around his head by the currents of air in the bubble but the fire didn't touch him. He seemed to be in trance now.

Severus screamed again, scared he would lose them both to the fire. Then everything stopped. Silence descended on them as the wind ceased and the flames vanished leaving nothing but a pile of ash where his daughter had been. Harry had slumped and Severus darted forward to stop the man falling to the floor. Once he had Harry laid out, he took a breath to shout for help when he heard something.

A sound he hadn't heard in nearly eight years. His daughter gurgling. He jumped up so quick he went dizzy but he didn't care. He looked on bed for the source of the gurgle and couldn't believe what he saw. In amongst the ash, was a newborn. Soft tufts of dark hair, rested on flushed skin. He picked up the baby. The ash falling from her skin as though it had never been.

He looked her over, she was the same as the day she had been born to him. Except for the slight smoky smell to her baby soft skin and a tiny birthmark on the small of her back. A small red flame resting on the skin over her coccyx. He had gotten his wish, he had got her back. He looked in shock as the noise of the ward started to filter back into his mind. Mia had been his wartime gift, but she had been reborn. They had been given a second chance. Born from the ashes, she was their little Phoenix.


	7. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"Happy birthday to you." Came the chorus of voices around the child and her parents "Happy birthday to you." She smiled happily, her parents beaming as they sung along. "Happy birthday to Aurora. Happy birthday to you." 

Everyone cheered around them as Harry, with Aurora on his lap, tipped his head back to receive a kiss from his husband. It had been a very busy year. Between the tests on Aurora in the weeks that followed her rebirth, the explanations and news reports that followed, breaking the news to family and organising the logistics of looking after a newborn, like taking a break from work to look after Aurora and loving every minute of his second chance, the year had vanished.

It had been busy, exhausting and an emotional roller coaster but Harry wouldn't change a minute of it. He still was saddened about the loss of Mia, she would forever be in his heart and he knew Severus still mourned her death greatly. Harry had even managed to get him to see a counsellor to talk everything through with. 

In the weeks that followed Mia/Aurora's rebirth, they had stayed in the hospital together with Aurora while tests were taken and retaken. Nothing had been found, as far as magic and medicine were concerned Aurora was a perfectly healthy new born baby girl. Severus had taught Harry how to care for her and had loved teaching the young man and sharing the experience he had gained through raising Mia, but there had been moments he hadn't even been able to look at Aurora.

He knew that she was the same child, but he had lost Mia and it had been hard on him. He felt angry both at Harry and Aurora for the loss of Mia to the point he had disappeared for a couple of days at the end of the first week, but he had come back and, while even up to today he still zoned out and sought out solitude on occasion, he hadn't left again. 

"Happy birthday Aurora." Harry smiled as she managed to grab at her cake and rip a chunk off it. "Hey cheeky girl, you have to share." He laughed.

"Leave her be, it is her birthday after all." Severus smiled, but Harry could see the sadness in his eyes. They had decided to treat Aurora like a separate child. They mourned Mia and rejoiced in Aurora, unfortunately that meant that Mia's death day would forever shadow Auroras birthday. They still hadn't decided how they would broach the subject of Mia with Aurora as she grew. They knew the easiest would be to explain her previous incarnation as her older sister, but she was identical because Aurora was Mia. They had time to think about it, and they did often. 

"Here you go then, you can have the cake monster." Harry laughed back passing Aurora up to her father. Severus looked disgusted but the smile in his eyes took the edge off the expression. 

"Nobody would have thought Daddy used to deal with messy children all day everyday. " Severus told his daughter playfully. He looked around the room in wonder at the people that were here to celebrate his little Phoenix birthday. It was so different to Mia's first. That had been a quiet affair. Just the two of them playing with a couple of toys Severus had bought her as presents, eating all her favourite foods, before reading her a story from the book he had bought her for her birthday 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard' as she fell asleep at the end of relaxing birthday. 

Tonight, Aurora will be passing out exhausted from all the excitement. He cleaned her hands as he watched Harry move over to some of his co-workers. Harry would be returning to work in a few more months, and they were still working out the logistics of that change. Molly came over to him.

"What a difference a year makes." She smiled holding out her hands to take the birthday girl. Severus passed his daughter to her honorary grandmother and looked around the room. He couldn't believe the family he had gained in the year. He looked at his stunning husband, the dad of his children, because Mia and Aurora were different children. He had suffered the pain of a loss no parent should ever go through but from his daughter's death Aurora had been reborn, his relationship with Harry had been reborn and he himself had been reborn.

He had realised his time on this earth was precious, every minute was a minute to be savoured and enjoyed.

"Yes, it's about time we both made up for lost time." Severus smiled, knowing that's exactly what they would do.

The End


End file.
